Colorado Avalanche leading scorer Matt Duchene will have an MRI to determine the severity of a knee injury that knocked him out of Saturday's game in the opening minute.

The Colorado Avalanche completed their incredible turnaround on Saturday with a 3-2 win over the San Jose Sharks that officially punched their ticket to the postseason. It wasn't an entirely happy day, however.

That's because not even a minute into the game the Avalanche watched their leading scorer Matt Duchene skate off the ice in obvious durress following a collision with Jamie McGinn. Favoring his left leg, Duchene immediately left the ice and didn't return.

While it certainly didn't look promising, the Avalanche still don't know what the severity of the injury is so Duchene will undergo an MRI.

"I'm always a positive person. I believe that he's going to be back for playoffs," Patrick Roy said (via NHL.com). "At the same time, we lost Peter Forsberg after the second round the year we won the Stanley Cup [in 2001]. A team is a team. You have to go out there and play hard and find ways to win games. That's what we're going to continue to do."

Easier said than done, that's for sure.

Clearly losing Duchene is a really big blow for the Avs if he's out for any length of time. They are still battling the Blackhawks for the first round home-ice advantage against the other (they are almost assuredly going to be first-round opponents) but at least they have their playoff spot locked and can afford to take it a bit easy with Duchene if need be.

Because when the playoffs come around, the Avalanche could use a guy who has 70 points in 71 games this season, most on the team.